
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY
3
2.
We are saved by grace through faith, This saving
grace is entirely a gift of God. Every one may ask God for
this gift and receive it.
"You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them
away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to
Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins, and give
you a new heal t. Then believe that He does this
because He
has promised.
This is the lesson which Jesus taught while
He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must
believe we do receive, and it is ours."—"Steps
to Christ," pp.
53, 54, latest edition.
3.
"From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed
the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him
for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the
paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had
not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him,
`Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.' The sick .man might have
said, 'Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy
word.' But no, he believed Christ's word, believed that he was
made whole, and he made the effort at once; he
willed
to walk,
and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and. God
gave the power. He was made whole.”—
Id., p. 54.
4.
"In like manner you are a sinner. You can not atone
for your past sins, you can not change your heart, and make
yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through
Christ. You
believe
that promise. You confess your sins, and
give yourself to God. You
will
to serve Him. Just as surely
as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you be-
lieve the promise,— believe that you are forgiven and
cleansed,— God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as
Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man be-
lieved that he was healed. It
is
so if you believe it.
"Do not wait to
feel
that you are made whole, but say, 'I
believe it; it
is
so, not because I feel it, but because God has
promised.'
"— Id., p. 55.
5.
"Jesus says, 'What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'
There is a condition to this promise,— that we pray according
to the will of God. But it is the will of God to cleanse us from
sin, to make us His children, and to enable us to live 'a holy
life. So we may ask for these blessings, and believe that we
receive them, and thank God that we
have
received them. It
is our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand
before the law without shame or remorse. 'There is there-
fore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' . . .
"Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and
must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they